


Caught

by amoeve



Series: Zutara Month 2015 [15]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 21:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5642236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amoeve/pseuds/amoeve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sokka’s boomerang is in his hand. “Zuko,” he says quite formally. “The future of our friendship rests on whether you deflowered my sister behind that statue of Fire Lady Whatsherface.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught

They’ve become very good at discreetly disappearing – and at having plausible excuses for where they’ve been for certain periods of time.

They know perfectly well that Toph can feel their heartbeats, so Katara’s always careful to run a quick healing scan over them, ensure that there are no racing pulses.

Iroh doesn't miss a trick, so Zuko suspects that his uncle suspects – but he can't _know_ , not really. Especially as Zuko and Katara have both made a study, throughout their lives, of pretending very hard that everything is normal: Zuko so that he was never caught out and criticised by his father, Katara because it is the only way she knew how to cope with the loss of her mother.

What they didn’t count on was Suki – or Sokka’s acute curiosity over things that seem amiss, so that he can the first to have the gossip.

They’ve slipped into a nook in one of the rambling hallways in the old winter palace, where nobody ever goes. The fact that the corridor runs north-south means it’s darker – no south-facing windows give any shadows away. Being masters of stealth has many uses.

Also, they’re hiding behind a statue of a long-dead Fire Lady, and the bronze depictions of her voluminous robes should be enough to conceal them from any passersby.

Zuko’s arms are wrapped around Katara, one hand cradling her head as they kiss, long and languorous and lovely. One of _her_ hands is stroking his back, the other tangling in his hair.

They freeze when they hear a noise.

“Suki?” A distinctly unsubtle whisper that can only be Sokka echoes up the empty corridor. “What are you doing here?”

Katara buries her face in Zuko’s shoulder and tries not to laugh, because she can imagine the frustration on Suki’s face that Sokka’s just announced their location.

“Sokka... I thought you were following Zuko,” Suki says, and Katara can just see her shadow on the other side of the statue.

“I was!” Sokka protests. “I swear he came this way!”

“But… Katara came this way, too.” Suki sounds puzzled.

“Oh _no_!” Sokka moans, not whispering any longer. “Do you think they’ve been sneaking off _together_?!”

Katara presses her lips together and risks a look at Zuko – who is staring up at the ceiling and quite clearly biting the inside of his cheek, trying very hard not to laugh.

“My baby sister and _Zuko_?” Sokka’s voice is rising. “But he’s – he’s – URGH, he’s my _friend_! That’s not _right_!”

Zuko looks down at her and it’s too much, it’s just too much. Even though she buries her face in his shoulder to smother her giggles she can feel him laughing into her hair, and then it’s too late, the sound is bubbling out and they are so, so rumbled.

Suki’s head pops around the statue, and her eyes widen. “Hi guys,” she says, eyeing them up and down. “This is... cosy.”

“Are they back there?” Sokka practically squeaks. “Oh, no, I don’t want to know. Oh, no, are they naked?”

“No!” Katara hears Zuko chorus with her, as they spring apart.

“They’re clothed,” Suki winks at them, and backs away so they can spill out from behind the statue and into the corridor. Katara resists the urge to rearrange her clothes, because yes, she is feeling a little mussed, but she’s damned if she’s going to give her brother the satisfaction. “Sokka,” she scolds, “you’re such an old woman sometimes.”

Sokka’s boomerang is in his hand. “Zuko,” he says quite formally. “The future of our friendship rests on whether you deflowered my sister behind that statue of Fire Lady Whatsherface.”

“No, of course not!” Zuko’s face is crimson, and Katara wants to thump her big brother.

“I’m a grown woman, Sokka, I can… canoodle where I like,” she says, kicking herself for stumbling – and for using a grandmotherish word like ‘canoodle’.

“Besides, I seem to remember you waiting for Suki with flowers and candles everywhere one night during the war,” Zuko says, folding his arms. His very, very nice arms.

Katara snaps her eyes away from them to see Suki blushing faintly.

“Yes, well…” Sokka flounders, and then says, “well… can we never speak of this again?”

They make their way back to the newer parts of the palace, Sokka and Zuko bickering and Suki eyeing Katara up, knowing there’s gossip that will not be divulged in front of Katara’s brother.

They reach one of the main thoroughfares back to the main palace, and there are servants approaching – and Iroh, and Toph.

“A tent is _completely_ different to a statue!” Sokka says, too loudly, and Zuko winces.

Well, Katara decides, they’re in a long corridor now, with witnesses, so Sokka can’t _actually_ kill Zuko, and also there’s plenty of space to make a hasty exit. So she says “We didn’t do it behind the statue, Sokka. It was on the roof of the astronomy tower last week,” and then grabs Zuko’s hand and runs.

**Author's Note:**

> The astronomy tower, of course, is a reference to Harry Potter fandom. All the romance stories on FictionAlley were archived in the Astronomy Tower.
> 
> And because I liked the notion so much, the story of what happened on the roof of the astronomy tower can be found in [Forbidden](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5642548).


End file.
